FOCUS ON AUDITS Don't Be Afraid of the A-wordUnlike the tax v

Typically, donors with high loyalty — as defined by a combination of annual giving frequency and years of giving — and more recent donations are easier to capture — and more valuable once recaptured — than the donors with lower loyalty and a longer period of lapsing.

Lapsed donors are an extremely valuable source of support for an organization, and therefore it is important to analyze this group thoroughly. Typically, it's more cost effective to recapture a lapsed donor than it is to acquire a new one. More importantly, a recaptured donor is more likely to renew her support the following year than a new donor. The renewal rate of recaptured donors typically is 45 percent to 50 percent, compared to 30 percent to 40 percent for newly acquired donors.